Allegri axed by Juventus after Champions League flop

TURIN – Coach Massimiliano Allegri will leave Serie A champions Juventus at the end of the season after guiding them to five straight Italian titles, the club said on Friday.

“Massimiliano Allegri will not be on the Juventus bench for the 2019/2020 season,” the club announced in a surprise development.

Allegri, 55, held meetings with the club’s hierarchy earlier in the week during which a clear disagreement between the two parties emerged.

He had rejected reports saying he was about to be dismissed last Saturday adding he had already been making plans for the side’s future for the past six months.

Juventus have already wrapped up their record eighth consecutive title, and Allegri’s fifth in as many years and he lifted the Coppa Italia on four occasions since replacing Antonio Conte in 2014.

The club’s former midfielder Conte along with France boss and ex-defender and boss Didier Deschamps, Champions League finalist Mauricio Pochettino of Tottenham and Lazio’s Simone Inzaghi have been linked with taking over from Allegri in the Italian press in recent weeks.

Allegri’s name shot up the bookmaker’s list of favourites to be the next permanent coach at Inter Milan and Chelsea, despite both sides already having men in place.

Despite signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid last summer the Bianconeri failed to make it past the quarter-finals of the European football’s top competition for the second successive season.

They were humiliated by modest-spending Ajax in the last eight in April, despite a star-studded side including Ronaldo, Argentina’s Paulo Dybala and France World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi.